A cafe for sweethearts in South Melbourne

Eggs; how many ways can one cook eggs?

Boiled, poached and fried are the usual ways most cafes serve their eggs. Sure, add hollandaise sauce, toast fingers, bacon, baked beans, BBQ sauce, sauteed mushrooms and maybe a hash brown. But this is all still pretty standard in my opinion. And although most people will probably have their favourite local cafe that they trudge up to on a Saturday or Sunday morning, sunnies firmly fixed over their eyes, snatching the best parts of the cafe’s newspapers to bury their head in, to probably find themselves ordering eggs in some capacity; I say when in Rome, do as Romans do. Or when in Melbourne, do as I do and head to Cafe Sweethearts.

The immediate thought which struck me as I first looked at the menu at Cafe Sweethearts on Coventry Street, South Melbourne was “how extensive is the EGGS menu?” A flipboard style menu introduces you to the many ways that eggs can be served – eggs la mer is my favourite to eat and savour the taste of with the I-must-not-forget-to-tell-you-to-order-the-ROSTI as it is the icing on the cake. As mentioned in a previous post last week in that some ingredients are just meant to be married; Rosti aka fried potato and eggs is a match made in heaven. And I am not just talking about the average hash brown here. But in order to soak up all of the previous night’s sins or to just taste a bit of oily heaven in one’s mouth, it is the outer crunch and soggy middle which gets my tastebuds tingling and just goes perfectly with my choice of poached egg.

Cafe Sweethearts is regularly written up positively in foodie circles so I’m not shouting anything new here but only recalling all of my yummy experiences. You will find when you go to this cafe that it is jam packed and unless you have called ahead and planned prior to have a rosti and egg combo (bookings are available), you may find you need to wait for 15 minutes before taking a seat. The rest of the menu is also mouth-watering and if eggs don’t light your morning fire then their pancakes, muffins and french toast certainly will in addition to the very well made Genovese coffee.

I am a Sydneysider through and through but when I do visit Melbourne which is quite often, namely because of this cafe and often “just because”, no matter if I am racing to the airport or have all the time in the world…a drop in to Cafe Sweethearts is essential.

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Published in: on March 31, 2010 at 8:05 am  Comments (1)  
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Plate licked clean

Physically picking up your plate at the dinner table and licking your plate clean has a certain cheekiness about it; some might call it rude. I look at it as complete satisfaction and I think most cooks that love to cook, deep down would agree with me.

Cooks that love to cook have spent time, big or small preparing the food. A lot of people cook for their loved ones, friends, colleagues or even just themselves and there is nothing more satisfying after you have dished up the meal and may be slightly sweating from standing too close to the stove for so long to see your “guests” in their own way wolfing down their food and not a crumb is left at the end.

Last night I witnessed this moment. The food was a thick, sticky reduced red wine sweet sauce that was remnants of a weekend dessert. It was the accompaniment to a few slices of pineapple. There was enough sauce to go round for five people and then some. It was the then some that tipped my man over the edge and into licking oblivion, because what went from a polite spoon in hand eating the dessert to suddenly a ravenous-have-not-eaten-in-days licking of the plate motion was an incredible sight to see and I was not even the cook.

So, don’t hold back are my words of wisdom. If you are at dinner wherever you may be, put your neck out on the line and lick the plate clean. Forget about the people that are rolling their eyes at you or tsk tsk tsking you because it’s not etiquette to do so. Not only will you ensure that you have eaten every last morsel of the divine meal in front of you but the cook will be left with a feeling of satisfaction that is priceless.

Published in: on March 31, 2010 at 2:09 am  Comments (2)  
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